


The Little Rascals

by idrk



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Jughead Jones Needs a Hug, jughead likes betty, they are all like ten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-07-02 05:34:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15789987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrk/pseuds/idrk
Summary: Jughead is dealing with his feelings for Betty along with family problems. Betty starts to have some low-key confidence issues. Takes place when Jughead, Betty, and Archie are leaving the 5th grade.





	The Little Rascals

**Author's Note:**

> So what up guys, its ya boi back at it again with some shitty content. So I know that I read a fic on here like this but I can't find it again. If any of you like find that fic please leave the name or something in the comments cuz I really liked it. But bc I couldn't find it, I decided to write one miself, I hope that y'all think it's good and all cuz i think that it isn't that bad. I'm thinking about doing another Riverdale fic soon when they are a little older, so stay tuned for that mother fucker. Peace.

Jughead woke up in the middle of the night, prompted by the yelling in the kitchen. His mother’s words reverberated in the small trailer, not allowing him to just ignore the hateful words.

Neither could his sister apparently.

“Juggie,” he heard his sister’s small voice from across the room. “are you awake?”

“Yes Jelly.” He responded, knowing what was coming next.

“Can I come over to your bed?” Jellybean got scared when she heard her parents fight like this: screaming things at the top of their lungs, stomping down the hallways of the trailer, the occasional shatter of something thrown at a wall. She would usually ask Jughead to come and sleep in his bed, the comforting warmth of her older brother calming her down, allowing her to fall back asleep.

“There’s a spot awaiting your arrival.” Jughead joked lightly. He heard her slide out of her bed, and tiptoe her way over to the other side of the room. She hopped up causing the mattress to dip slightly under her weight. Jughead decided to put his arm above her head, allowing for her to snuggle up to his side. He liked doing this, protecting her from the wrath of their parents. He remembered when he was just a little younger than her, they would get into fights, not nearly as bad as they were now, but they were scary to a four year old nonetheless. He liked that he can be there for her, so she didn’t have to face stuff like this alone.

“Juggie?” she spoke again.

“Yeah?” he answered.

“Do you think that mom and dad will get a divorce?” He could sense the slight fear in her voice, probably due to the fact that she had never known another life, one where they weren’t together, one where she had to switch between two homes.

“I don’t know Jelly, but I don’t think they will.” he lied.

“Really?”

“Really.”

With that they both kept quiet, and listened to their parents once more.

“You son of a bitch!” His mother screeched, followed by the crashing of a plate.

He could feel Jellybean’s breathing begin to steady, but he was far from sleeping, the weight of her question still on his shoulders. _What if we have to move to a new town? Would I ever see Archie or Betty again? Would I never go to Pop’s again.? What would going to a new school feel like?_ His mind kept reeling, his anxious thoughts getting the best of him. He was thinking of the worst case scenario.

Eventually the yelling subsided, and he heard someone go out the door, the other heading down the hallway towards their room. He started to steading his breathing so he could pretend to be asleep, but the footsteps turned to go into their parents room before it reached theirs. He sighed a breath of relief, and let himself calm down so he could fall asleep.

* * *

 

The next day he woke up, confused by the sleeping Jellybean in his bed. All of the events from the previous night came rushing back to his conscious mind, and he groaned. Now he’s gonna have to deal with the aftermath.

He got up slowly and carefully as to not disturb his sister and headed off to the kitchen. He found his mother happily making pancakes and bacon, the smell of fresh coffee and breakfast awakening him even more.

“Oh, good morning Jughead!” his mother said cheerfully, “I was just finishing up some breakfast. Get the orange juice out of the fridge if you don’t mind, please.” This was typical morning behavior for his mother after big fights: she would continue on her merry way pretending like nothing was out of the ordinary, as if their dad wasn’t nowhere to be found. Maybe she thought that Jughead and Jellybean hadn’t heard anything, but either way, it drove Jughead crazy. _Just say something!_ He was internally screaming as he pulled the juice out of the fridge, but he knew damn well not to say anything first.

“Jughead, Fred called this morning and invited you over to their house if you would like.”

“That sounds good mom.” Jughead said as normally as he could. “Should I wake Jellybean up for breakfast?” he didn’t want to be in the room alone with her, the tension was too tangible for him.

“Sure, tell her I made her favorite.” She added, as if everything wasn’t Jellybeans’ favorite. She and Jughead were similar in that sense: they both liked to eat, and they never passed up food. He walked to their room leisurely, wanting to take as much time as possible. He creaked the door open and turned on the light. Jellybean opened one eye in response to the light, not appreciating being woken up so abruptly.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.” Jughead teased. Jellybean liked her sleep, often sleeping in late to her parents displeasure. She was late to school more times than she could count, which wasn’t very high but still.

“Good morning” she yawned. “Is that bacon I smell?”

“Yep,” he filled her in on this morning’s menu, “mom is making bacon and pancakes.”

“Yummy.” she said as she jumped out of bed, and ran to the kitchen.

They all sat through an awkward breakfast, filled with Gladys’ chatter and Jellybean’s responses. Jughead could barely eat which was unusual. He felt so uncomfortable, sitting there without addressing the night before. There was no sense of closure, no comfort from his mother.

“Fred said to come around by ten if you’re ready to go soon” Gladys had said after twenty minutes of small talk with his sister.

“After breakfast I’ll change.” he responded curtly, he was glad for his escape to Archie’s house though.

* * *

 

“Hey Jug.” Fred greeted enthusiastically when he opened the door. “Archie is just in the back if you want to go meet him back there.”

“Thanks Fred.” Jughead responded gratefully, ready for a distraction. He left his mom and Fred to discuss when to pick him up and all that crap. He went through the kitchen and through the backdoor to find Archie. He was just playing with a magnifying glass, burning leaves with the focused sunlight.

“Hey Jug.” Archie greeted mindlessly, too concentrated on his activity to look up at him. “I was just thinking about what we could do today, and I was thinking that we could play some video games or Race.” Race was a game that they came up with a few years ago, and it was almost exactly what it sounded like. It had three different “stages” as they liked to call them, first was the bike race, second was the footrace, and third was a sack race, they would just use garbage bags though. This game had a very complicated point system that Betty had came up with that neither Jughead or Archie could explain to you. Jughead remembers the day that they came up with the game. Betty had decided that she needed to be a part of it, so she came up with a point system. Being that Jughead was less athletic than Archie, she came up with factors that would benefit him, and factors that would benefit Archie. She sits on the sidewalk with her pen and paper, keeping score while Jughead and Archie raced.

_If we played Race, then Betty would come over._ Jughead considered this for a second, not knowing if her presence would comfort him or overwhelm him. He decided on the former, thinking that he would enjoy her company after a night like last night.

“I think Race would be fun.” Jughead said casually.

“Alright, let’s go get Betty.” Jughead’s heart started pounding, he had just recently developed a crush on the mentioned blonde, and it made him a little nervous. That didn’t mean that he didn’t like hanging out with her, he _really_ did, in fact. He was happy that Archie was as oblivious as he was, not noticing Jughead’s feelings for her; that would make for some awkward Sunday dinners.

Walking through Archie’s yard towards, Jughead noticed that his mom’s car was no longer in the driveway. Jughead wondered where his dad went, if he was coming back, even. He really didn’t want to face that reality yet, so he looked forward towards Betty’s house and started thinking about his fun afternoon.

Alice Cooper opened the door with a smile on her face, and a warm greeting.

“Hello boys! Betty is in her room, you can go up but knock on the door first.”

They headed up the stairs, and towards Betty’s room. Jughead’s heart began to pound again as they neared her door. He didn’t see her everyday during the summer, so the thought of seeing her after a few weeks of no interaction with her made him a little anxious.

Archie knocked on the door and yelled, “Betty, it’s me and Jughead, can we come in?”

They were met with hesitance before she said, “Yeah, come in.” They walked through the door to see Betty pulling her shirt all the way down. It appeared that she was changing.

“Why were you changing?” Archie asked her. It was about mid day, and Betty was usually up and ready by nine in the morning. Her mother was probably behind why she was like that: she liked to ingrain these values into Betty’s brain to make sure that she was her perfect little princess.

“I just… decided that I didn’t like my outfit, so I changed my shirt. Is that a crime?” She responded strangely, and defensively. Something was obviously wrong, this was all completely unlike Betty, but Jughead and Archie were not willing to open that can of worms.

“Ok, whatever.” Archie responded.

“We were just coming over to see if you wanted to keep score for Race.” Jughead piped in, deciding to break the tension.

“Yeah, that sounds like fun. Let me get my pen and paper.” She seemed relieved that he changed the subject.

A smile appeared on Jughead’s face. “Great, we’re gonna go get the bikes.” With that they headed out of Betty’s house and back to Archie’s. When they arrived at Archie’s garage, Jughead decided to talk about what happened when they walked into Betty’s room.

“Was it just me or did Betty seem a little off to you?” Jughead asked Archie to make sure that he wasn’t overreacting. It was a minor thing, but with Betty it was very odd.

“Yeah, she’s usually like, writing in her journal or doing something else boring.” Archie was looking behind boxes and various other things that occupied his garage to find the bikes that they used to race.

“She also never changes during the day. We’ve known her a very long time now, and I don’t think that she’s ever done that.” Jughead thought aloud. Betty’s mom liked to pick her outfits out and lay them out for Betty. She wanted to make sure that she looked appropriate and always a little girly.

“I don’t know Jug. Betty trusts us, if its a real problem, then she would come to us. It’s probably not as big of a deal as we think it is.” Archie reasoned.

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” But Jughead still thought that it was strange. _Archie’s right,_ Jughead thought, _she’ll tell us when she’s ready._

* * *

 

They finished their game with Archie winning 7C to Jugheads 5A (neither of them would ever understand what the letters mean no matter how many times Betty explained it to them). Archie grabbed some popsicles from the freezer in the kitchen and brought them outside to Betty and Jughead.

As they all sat on the deck enjoying their popsicles, Fred called Archie from inside.

“Yeah dad!” Archie responded, but Fred’s voice didn’t come from the house again. “Ugh, I’ll be back.”grumbled Archie at his dad’s lack of response.

“Hey Betty, can I ask you something?” Jughead said. His mouth was blue from his popsicle and Betty giggled.

“Yeah Jug.” She replied, and took a lick from her delicious treat.

“Well, I don’t think that you were changing when we went into your room, so what were you actually doing.?” she looked at him for a moment before she sighed.

“I was… looking at my… body in the mirror.” She felt incredibly awkward, like she was caught doing something wrong.

Jughead was confused. Why was she so embarrassed, and why did she lie? Betty wasn’t a liar, so it must be something deeper than this.

“What’s wrong with that? You didn’t have to lie to me and Archie about that.” If he was being honest, it bothered him that she didn’t tell them what she was really doing when they walked in. Were they untrustworthy or something?

“It’s just that…” she trailed off and bit her lip.

“Betty, you can tell me.” he said gently. She looked up at him, and he could see the little bit of blue in her green eyes. He wanted her to trust him, he wanted her to feel comfortable with him in a way that he couldn’t feel with almost anyone.

“Cheryl said something on the last day of school about how I looked like a boy.” She blurted out quickly. _Oh_ . Jughead knew about how girls bodies change at around this age, and he had noticed Cheryl’s new… _developments_ nearing the end of last year. She had started to fill out, and decided that it was reason to pick on Betty.

“Betty who cares what Cheryl thinks, she’s a bitch. Her opinion shouldn’t matter to you.” Jughead hoped that he was helping, this wasn’t exactly what he was best at doing.

“I know, but I can’t stop thinking about it. What if I never, y’know, look like that.” She looked really sad, but he couldn’t understand why. Betty was beautiful. Jughead had thought that ever since he first met her. If he’s being completely honest he doesn’t remember the first time they met considering they have been friends for as long as any of them can remember. So really, he has always thought that she was beautiful.

“There’s nothing wrong with the way you look, Betty. I mean, I think you’re pretty.” Jughead tried to comfort her. He had never called her pretty before, and she smiled.

“Thanks Jug.” she licked her popsicle.

“No, seriously, I think that all of the guys like you. Even Reggie.” He didn’t want her to like him back. In fact, he wasn’t particularly fond of Reggie, but he knew that girls tended to like him… for some reason or another. It seemed to make Betty happy, anyways.

“You really think so?” She asked timidly.

“Really” He responded confidently. The same statement that he had said to soothe his sister’s anxieties the night before.

Archie came back before the conversation could go any further.

“Hey Jug, my dad said that you could sleep over if you wanted to.” Archie plopped down on the outdoor couch and slurped at his now melting popsicle. After the night that Jughead had had the day before, he wasn’t ready to go home yet.

“Yeah, that sounds great Arch.” Jughead smiled contentedly, and leaned back on the couch with Archie, feeling like he could breathe, even if just for one night.


End file.
